Test of Time
by Emma Charming
Summary: Summary: The ones we love have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect. – Luna Lovegood Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time, or the quote used in the summary, or Luna for that matter.
1. Love Renewed

Test of Time

Chapter One: Love Renewed

**Summary:** The ones we love have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect. – Luna Lovegood

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Once Upon a Time, or the quote used in the summary, or Luna for that matter.

Emma couldn't bring herself to love Killian. She had desparately wanted to, but no matter how hard she had tried to let go of the past, she couldn't. Her heart belonged to Neal, and it would always belong to Neal. And the irony had not been lost on Emma. Both Killian and August had known Neal, and while Killian had known him longer and better than almost anyone, Emma knew Neal… Killian knew Baelfire. In Emma's mind's eye, Neal was not Baelfire, so the man that Emma knew and loved was not the same boy that Killian had taught how to sail a pirate ship. So when she had woken up one morning and found herself lying on the ground in front of a dug up grave that had Neal's tombstone at the head, and found an open- and empty- casket in the ground, Emma could only think of one thing: that the man she loves was not dead and that it was only the boy that Killian knew that had died.

"Emma."

It was spoken as a whisper, and if it had been any other voice, it might have startled Emma, but that voice could never startle her. It's the voice that belonged to Neal, and they were, after all, in Storybrooke, where magic was possible, so hearing Neal speak her name was a welcomed sound.

"Neal…" Emma breathed out with a sigh and a smile.

"It's been a long time since we last saw each other." Neal commented.

"Not really. You died in my arms a couple months ago. But it has felt like an eternity since then. But the sacrifice you made in an attempt to bring your father back was heroic." Emma replied as she turned to look at the man she loved.

"Are you sure it's only been a couple months?" Neal asked.

"I'm positive Neal… your date of supposed death is engraved on the headstone…" Emma said.

"There's no date of death written there Emma." Neal pointed out nodding toward the headstone in question.

"Yes there…" Emma said as she turned to look, "well damn it." She finished when she saw that he was right.

"Where's Henry?" Neal asked as Emma continued to stare at the now incomplete headstone.

"With Regina and Robin." Emma replied.

"Why is our son not with your parents?" Neal asked.

"He has his memories back Neal. He knows that Regina was the one who raised him and that she is as much his mother as I am. So he splits his time between me and her. Besides, he likes playing with Robin's son Roland. He's almost 13 years old Neal, I can't tell him that he can't spend time with Regina. If I tried to do that, I would be acting just like she did when he first brought me here." Emma explained.

"Please don't do that." Neal said.

"Don't do what Neal?" Emma asked glancing at him.

"Don't bring up how old our son is. It only reminds me that I didn't know he existed until a year ago." Neal replied.

"You only have yourself to blame Neal. If you hadn't double crossed me, I would have tried to find you when I got out to tell you about him and then we might have been able to raise him ourselves." Emma snapped.

"So you're saying that it's my fault you gave him up for adoption?" Neal questioned.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. You were the one that turned me into the cops. And because I was in love you, I allowed myself to take the fall for your crime." Emma said.

"If you really want someone to blame, blame August for that, not me. He intersected me on my way to meet you. And he was the one who called the cops on you, not me. He knew who I was… who I am. I didn't think you would believe me if I told you the truth. But I asked him to give you money and the bug so that you would be able to start a good life." Neal argued.

"What money? I only got the bug when I got out." Emma asked as she glared at him.

"That damn puppet… I swear to you Emma, I didn't want you to have to go back to stealing in order to survive. I gave August a lot of money to send to you." Neal said with a pleading look for her to believe him.

Emma let out a sigh. She had clearly dug up the casket, if the amount of dirt on her clothes was any indication. So she clearly wanted another chance at making everything right between them. Finally moving towards him, Emma slowly reached out her hand to touch him. She needed to assure herself that she wasn't have some twisted dream. As her hand came to rest lightly on his cheek, Neal leaned his head into her hand.

"I've really missed you Neal. So much time has past, but I never stopped loving you. Graham, August, Killian… none of them could ever replace you in my heart. I had no real room for anyone else in my heart. There are only a select number of people who are allowed to hold a part of my heart in their hands, and those people are my family. You, Henry, my mom, my dad, my baby brother… to an extent, Regina, Robin, Roland, your father and Belle, but that's it. No one else. And I don't want anyone else to have a place in my heart." Emma said as a couple tears escaped from her eyes to run down her dirt covered cheeks.

"What did they name him?" Neal asked as he wiped the tears away.

"He's named after his nephew's father." Emma said in a small voice.

"Your parents named him after me? They named your brother Neal?" Neal asked.

"Yeah, they did. I told them that you would be honored to be the namesake… was I wrong?" Emma asked.

"Of course you weren't. I am honored to be the namesake for a prince." Neal said with a smile before lightly kissing the top of Emma's head. "Now, what do you say about getting you home and cleaned up and then going to get our son so we can go out for a family day?" Neal suggested.

"I like the sound of that." Emma said with a nod.

"Emma, does anyone know that you came out here to dig up my grave?" Neal asked as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and they turned to walk away.

"I don't think so… but then again, I don't even remember coming out here myself." Emma admitted.

"Then should we do something about the giant hole and the empty casket that was my grave?" Neal asked.

"Probably." Emma said with a shrug as she turned back and used her magic to make everything look the way it had been.

"You learned how to control your magic." Neal said as a statement, but Emma still answered.

"There was a lot that happened after you… sacrificed yourself… and it did require me to learn how to control my powers, yes." Emma replied.

"You'll have to fill me in on everything that happened after I died." Neal said.

"In time Neal. I will do my best to explain everything in time." Emma commented as she returned to Neal's side.

"I can deal with that." Neal said with a small nod. He knew better than to try and force Emma into telling him something that she wasn't ready to talk about.

As the couple walked away from the cemetary, Emma's phone started ringing in her pocket. Pulling it out, Emma saw her father's picture on the screen and answered the phone after giving Neal an apologetic look.

"Hello." Emma said simply.

"**Where are you? You never came home last night after dropping Henry off at Regina's and your mother is worried sick, and that's causing your brother to fuss."** David said from the other end of the line.

"Im walking out of the cemetary." Emma said.

"**Why are you at the cemetary?**" David asked.

"I, for some reason, came out here and dug up Neal's grave. And I must have passed out when I saw the casket empty." Emma replied.

"**Sweetheart, that's not possible. We watched them put Neal's body into the casket and then lower it. He's dead.**" David said sadly. Out of all the guys he had seen his daughter be romantically involved with, he liked Neal the most, despite having gotten Emma pregnant with Henry when she was only 18.

"Dad, I'm telling you, Neal is alive. He's standing right next to me. If you give us 10 minutes, I can prove it to you." Emma said.

"**Put me on speaker. There's someone here that has a question that can only be answered by Neal.**" David said after a moment of silence.

"If it's August, tell him that he's getting slapped or punched when I get there." Emma said.

"**What am I getting slapped for? I haven't done anything wrong!**" August commented.

"Did Neal give you money to send to me when he asked you to send me the bug once I was out of jail?" Emma countered.

"**How do you know that Neal gave me money?**" August asked.

"Because he just told me that he did, and mind you, that was money that I never got, you greedy son of a bitch." Emma spat.

"**Watch your tone young lady.**" David said.

"Dad, I'm 29 years old, the same age that you and mom both look, so you can't really reprimand me for my tone." Emma said. "And August, what question were you wanting to ask Neal?" She asked.

"**If he told you about the money… which is something that only he and I knew about, since I never told anyone… then it's proof that you are with Neal. I was going to ask him what the piece of paper in my typewriter said when I stopped him from meeting with you, but now I don't have to.**" August replied.

"It said 'I know you're Baelfire'." Neal replied.

"**I said that I no longer needed to ask.**" August pointed out.

"I know, I was just further proving that I am who I say I am." Neal replied.

"We'll be back to the loft shortly so that I can shower. But then we are going to pick up Henry and then we are going to be spending the day as a family. Any other questions that you might have for Neal will have to wait until tonight." Emma said before hanging up the phone before her dad or August could say anything.

"This is going to be a long day." Neal commented.

"Yes it is. Now let's go get our son." Emma replied.

**End Chapter One**


	2. Family Time

Test of Time

Chapter Two: Family Time

Ch.1 Reviews:

To the guest that reviewed the first chapter asking if I had to put Regina with Robin, I know that where we are in the show, that Robin left Storybrooke to take care of Marian and Roland, but for all in tense of purposes of this story, I am changing the events of the show slightly. In this story, when Emma and Killian went back in time and they did not bring Marian back when they returned, so Robin will be under the impression that his wife is dead. I might change that as the story evolves, but for right now, Robin will not think that he is still married. I am, in no way, trying to push that adultry is okay, because it is not. I do appreciate you asking about this though, as that had not fully come to my attention while I was writing the first chapter.

To sudoku, thank you for pointing out my mistake of it being August, and not Neal, who sent Emma to jail. I edited the first chapter with that correction, so it is good to go for future readers.

To kurotenshi-08, I hope I cleared things up for you in this chapter. I, in no way intended to have Emma come off the way that she did at the end of the chapter as I do not think that she thinks that way about the circumstances of Henry's upbringing. However, even with Emma's explaination to him, Neal's view on the situation stands as is, since we have no idea how he would feel about Henry spending time with Regina.

Emma wasn't sure how Henry was going to react to his father being back from the dead, and if she was honest with herself, she was worried about that. Yes, magic was possible in Storybrooke, but if she had learned anything from her time in the small town, magic always came with a price, and she was scared that if it had been magic that had brought Neal back, that the price would be someone else that was close to Emma, and she didn't want that price to be Henry.

"You're worried about something Emma. What's wrong?" Neal asked.

"I'm scared Neal. I have no idea how our son is going to react to you being back, and I'm scared that Henry might end up having to pay the price if you were brought back by magic. I have put up walls to protect myself due to all of the hurt that I have faced in the past, but it really scares me that there are so many things at play right now and I have no idea how to deal with them." Emma explained as she leaned her head against his shoulder and her wrapped his arms around her.

"We will deal with everything one thing at a time. I want to believe that Henry will be happy to see me, but we will see how it goes when we pick him up. We are going to get through all of this as a family Emma. If that family is just you, me and Henry, then it's just the three of us. If we need help from our extends family, then we will ask for their help. You are not in this alone Emma. I'm here for you, and so is your family." Neal said as he gently rubbed Emma's back to soothe her.

"Bae?"

The voice made Emma and Neal break apart and look around. It was Belle and Gold that were walking towards them, and Gold had a look of confusion on his face at seeing his son.

"Papa, Belle." Neal said simply with very little emotion in his voice.

"We thought you were dead." Belle commented as she wrapped her arms around her step-son to pull him into a hug.

"I was… but I'm not now." Neal replied.

"We can see that son." Gold said shortly, and seemingly agitated.

"Can we catch up with you two later? We have to go pick up Henry from Regina's after I clean up some." Emma said with a polite smile.

"Of course; come by the house for dinner tomorrow. We can talk then." Belle offered as she gave Neal another hug and then took Gold's hand and led him towards the Pawn Shop.

"Do you mind explaining to me why you were so emotionless with your father and his wife?" Emma asked once Belle and Gold were out of earshot.

"I don't know Emma. Maybe it has something to do with me coming back from the dead, maybe it's something that feels off about my father that has ties to when I was dead, but right now, I have no idea." Neal said with a sigh.

"Well, that's another thing we will have to figure out. But that will be resolved tomorrow night at dinner. We have a lot to do today, so we aren't going to dwell on that, right?" Emma said.

"Of course, we need to stay focused on the task at hand, and that would be talking to Henry." Neal said with a nod.

As Emma took Neal's hand in hers, she gave it a reassuring squeeze. He had been right, they were going to figure all of this out as a couple, and if he was going to be her rock, then she needed to be his in return. They couldn't let something, or someone, else come between them again. Continuing toward her parents' loft, neither Emma not Neal said much to each other. They were each going over scenarios in their heads on the impending conversations that they needed to have with their family and friends and they didn't want to risk voicing them in fear that the worst ones would come to light. They were almost to the loft when someone else stopped them.

"Mom? Why are you covered in… dad? Is that you?" Henry asked as he ran up to both of them and threw his arms around Neal. "I thought I would never see you again." He added when he pulled away a couple moments later.

"Well kid, I'm back." Neal said with a smile.

"Mom, why are you covered in dirt?" Henry asked turning to Emma.

"Because I apparently felt the need to go to the cemetary last night after dropping you off at Regina's to dig up your father's grave." Emma said with a shrug.

"That's weird, even for Storybrooke." Henry commented.

"Yeah kid, it is, but that seems to be what happened, so we just have to deal with it." Emma said. "We were actually going to come get you after I took a shower. Would you be up for a family day, just the three of us?" Emma asked.

"That sounds cool. And I needed to get out of the house. So I went to the loft, and Uncle Neal was crying, and Grandpa was pacing back and forth, and Grandma was spouting off different scenarios on what could be wrong, and August was, well, August was being August, so I needed to get out of that house too." Henry explained.

"I understand having to leave the loft, being around my parents can be a bit overwhelming, but why did you have to leave Regina's?" Emma asked.

"Mom and Robin were arguing about something, and I figured that they didn't want Roland and I to hear them, so I told them that I was taking Roland to the Merry Men and that I was heading over to see Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Neal." Henry said with a shrug.

"Could you make out any of what Regina and Robin were arguing about?" Neal asked.

"There had been a woman at Robin's camp. Or wandering around the town or something like that, and Robin could have sworn that it was his wife, you know, the one that was killed, and it has started to cause a rift between them. Because if it does end up being Robin's wife, then he feels that he needs to honor his vows to her, and be with her instead of mom." Henry replied.

"That's a lot." Emma commented.

"I knew better than to ask questions, so I just got myself and Roland out of the line of fire." Henry said.

"Smart thinking." Neal commented.

"Hey Mom, while you go upstairs, is it okay if I talk to Dad down here? I don't think I can handle going back up there." Henry asked.

"It's fine with me, but you need to ask your father, I can't speak for him." Emma said with a smile as she turned to Neal.

"It's fine with me kid." Neal replied when Henry looked at him as well.

"Well, there's this girl…" Henry started.

"Okay, that's my cue. I'll be back as soon as possible, but don't you two go wandering off without me." Emma said before placing a light kiss on Neal's cheek and another on Henry's forehead.

"Okay, what's the girl's name son?" Neal asked once Emma was out of ear shot.

"Grace. I've liked her for years, and I would like to ask her out, but I don't know if I should ask her out first and then risk her saying that I have to ask permission from her dad, or just ask for her dad's permission to begin with and risk him saying that I can't ask Grace out." Henry explained.

"Henry, you are only almost 13 years old, and how old is Grace?" Neal asked.

"Same age. We're in the same classes at school." Henry replied.

"Okay, now I'm going to tell you what any respectable young man should do if they have this option, which I didn't when I met your mom; always ask the parents' permission first. There is a better chance of you gaining respect from both the parent, or parents, and the daughter if you do. Also, you should almost always go with your gut, so if your gut was telling you to ask her father's permission first, then you should do that; if it was telling you to ask Grace first, then this would have been one of the times when you wouldn't listen to your gut." Neal said.

"Thanks Dad, that really helps." Henry replied with a smile and a sigh of relief.

"Who is her father? In the Enchanted Forest, I mean." Neal questioned.

"The Mad Hatter. Shortly after I brought Mom here, he kind of kidnapped Grandma and used that as a way to try and force Mom into making another magical hat, since his was taken by my mom, and he was a little obsessed with Mom's untouched magic." Henry explained.

"What about now?" Neal asked.

"He keeps to himself mostly. Once the curse was broken, he was reunited with Grace, but he doesn't leave his mansion much." Henry replied.

"Then I have nothing to worry about regarding him and Emma." Neal said more to himself than to Henry.

Once Emma reached the top landing, she took a second to compose herself and to ready herself for the onslaught of questions that she was no doubt going to be bombarded with as soon as she walked through the door. And with it being her family, she knew that there would be no way for her to slip past them to go upstairs and shower and then slip back out without being noticed. Taking a deep breath, Emma opened the front door and walked in.

"Explain yourself, right now." David said as he folded his arms across his chest and stared his daughter down.

"What would you like me to explain? Neal's not dead, and once I clean up, Neal, Henry and I are going to spend the day as a family." Emma said with a shrug.

"I would like you to explain to me why you think that now that Neal is back that Henry should be with you and Neal." David said.

"What are you talking about?" Emma asked.

"When we were on the phone earlier, you said that you were going to come back here to shower, and then you and Neal were going to go pick up Henry from Regina's and then the three of you were spendig the day as a family; so again, why do you think that now that Neal is back, Henry should just be with the two of you?" David questioned.

"Dad, you're blowing everything out of proportion. Yes I said that, but I didn't mean it like that. Neal and Henry barely know each other, and they didn't get a lot of time to talk when we all saved Henry from Neverland, but whether Neal had been alive or not, the plan for today was always for Hemry and I to spend together. At least once Regina's plans changed that is. Do I think that Henry should spend time with his father, yes, of course I do; do I think that he should solely be with me and Neal, of course not. Regina is as much Henry's mother as I am, and when she and Henry make plans together, then I bring him over to her house so that they can do whatever it is that they made plans to do. For today in particular, the plan was just tweaked slightly to include Neal. I honestly think that it could be good for Henry, in the long run, to have his father as his male role model. At least for some things in his life. You are an amazing role model Dad, but with Baby Neal needing both of his parents to take care of him, Henry needs someone else that he can turn to if he needs to talk. And I hope, if right now is any indication, that Neal could be that person. Henry grew up with a single mother raising him. He spent his whole life wondering about me and Neal. And now that he has a chance to spend some time with both of us together, you are accusing me of wanting to take away Regina's rights to see him, and that is not okay with me. I am nothing like who Regina used to be when Henry first brought me here. If my son wants to spend time with his other mother, then that is solely his choice. I might voice my opinion on it from time to time, whether it's positive or negative, but it is still up to Henry what he wants to do." Emma said before looking around the room to her mom and to August.

Walking over to the puppet, Emma slapped him as hard as she could.

"That was for keeping the money that Neal had intended for me to have." Emma said before turning back to her parents. "Now, I will be upstairs taking a shower to get all of this dirt off of me, and then I will be joining Henry and Neal outside." She added.

"I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions Emma. It was wrong of me. I know that you aren't like Regina, and I hate that my implications towards you came off that way." David apologized.

"It's okay Dad. Even Heros make mistakes some times. Besides, you said that you were all worried about me when I didn't come home last night, so your actions are jusified by lack of sleep." Emma said before she ascended the stairs to her room.

End Chapter Two

Thank you to the three people who reviewed the first chapter, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter as well. I hope that I fixed the issues that you all brought up, or at least explained my reasoning for them in a way that satisfies your concerns. As a growing author, and with this only being my second OUAT fan fiction, I will be continuing to work on concerns brought up by reviews with them to make this story the best that it can be.


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